Shoppers Drug Mart MedsCheck Overbilling
Shoppers Drug Mart billed Ontario $81 million for medication reviews over two years—more than the previous six years combined—while pharmacists reported corporate pressure to conduct unnecessary reviews and meet targets.
🏥 An in effect Healthcare policy from March 2024 · Well sourced
Updated · Created
"Pharmacy-Led Care"
Pharmacists can provide routine health consultations to help Ontarians manage chronic conditions and reduce pressure on family doctors.
"Pharmacists are a trusted front-line resource for patients in their communities."
— Ontario Pharmacists Association
"$200M+ in Questionable Billings"
Shoppers Drug Mart billed OHIP for millions of MedsCheck consultations — a pharmacist medication review program — with audits revealing widespread over-billing and minimal patient benefit. The Auditor General found pharmacies billing for consultations that never happened or were far shorter than claimed.
- Auditor General found MedsCheck billings grew from $22M to $200M+ with inadequate oversightsource
- Some pharmacies billed for 15-minute consultations completed in 2 minutessource
- Shoppers Drug Mart / Loblaws was the dominant biller in the programsource
- Government failed to implement Auditor General's oversight recommendations for yearssource
This section represents editorial interpretation of documented evidence.
Figures are approximate, using publicly available Ontario cost data.
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